Abstract

Insertion of an object into the vagina of a murder victim is a rare phenomenon. While this type of crime-scene behaviour is often mentioned as part of a range of crime-scene behaviours exhibited by offenders of sexual murders, to date no research has focused exclusively on this type of behaviour and its possible use in predicting offender characteristics. This study analysed seventeen such cases that were committed in South Africa between 1990 and 2004. Only six of the cases were solved, and therefore had offender details available for analysis. For these six incidents there were eight offenders. While small in number, there were certain common traits exhibited by these offenders, allowing a starting point for creating an offender profile of such offenders for the benefit of those investigating such cases.